Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich are the first teams in the Champions League knockout rounds after the rivals both won on Tuesday to advance with two games left.
PSG routed RSC Anderlecht 5-0 — with defender Layvin Kurzawa scoring three to outshine Neymar — and Bayern won 2-1 at Celtic.
Manchester United, like PSG, won a fourth straight game, but beating SL Benfica 2-0 was not enough to ensure advancing from Group A.
Photo: AP
Meanwhile, for the second time in two weeks, AS Roma put three goals past Chelsea’s experienced defense.
After a rousing 3-3 draw in London, it was a surprisingly comfortable 3-0 win in Rome that began with Stephan El Shaarawy’s powerful shot inside 40 seconds.
El Shaarawy scored again before halftime to punish hesitation by former Roma defender Antonio Rudiger. Diego Perotti struck with a long-range shot midway through the second half.
Roma edged one point ahead of Chelsea in the standings, and there is four-point gap to Atletico Madrid in third place.
Atletico have gone to at least the quarter-finals in each of the past four seasons, but now risk missing out after another draw against newcomers Qarabag of Azerbaijan, 1-1 in Madrid.
Qarabag led in the 40th minute with a header by midfielder Michel, and Atletico equalized with a stunning side-foot shot from Thomas Partey in the 56th. Both teams finished with 10 men.
Atletico host Roma on Nov. 22.
Barcelona and Juventus are still heavily favored to advance despite both sides missing their chance.
Barcelona drew 0-0 at Olympiakos and Juventus needed a late leveler from Gonzalo Higuain to earn a 1-1 draw at Sporting in Lisbon.
The two powerhouses meet in Turin in three weeks’ time, when Barcelona will need only a draw to progress.
Barcelona have 10 points, three points clear of last year’s runners-up Juventus, with Sporting a further three points back.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite